There.com hopes Second Life hasn't ruined virtual worlds for everybody
With support for Mac users, a new Facebook widget and an instant messaging application, There.com is hoping to breathe some life into its 3D virtual world which has gone largely unnoticed for years since its launch in 2003. If publicity could support a business model, Second Life might not be the largely empty libertarian paradise it is today. Google's new entry Lively, on the other hand, has also struggled with adopting users — possibly because it refuses to cater to any interests that aren't G-rated. The question remains as to whether any 3D simulacrum that isn't explicitly for gaming has much attraction to all but introverted shut-ins and avant kinksters. With family-friendly rules to keep the virtual pimps and hustlers off the polygonal streets, There.com might just succeed in finally reaching a broadening demographic: Parents so scared, they'd rather keep their teens cooped up at home and nervously trying to interact with crushes online when not reading the Twilight series of chaste teen romance novels featuring abstinent vampires or getting dragged to dad's Promise Keepers meetings.